Indian badminton had a great journey in the last decade. Saina Nehwal and P.V Sindhu performed brilliantly in most of the tournaments they played. In 2017 we saw Kidambi Srikanth winning 4 super-series titles.
Since then the number of players in Men’s Singles has increased. And in the MS rankings released in November 2019, eight Indian shuttlers were in the top 50. But they have performed inconsistently in the last one year.
Let’s take a look at Indian MS performances from January 2019 to 2020 at just the top BWF super tournaments.
Thailand Masters 2019
Shubankar Dey was only Indian participation and he bowed out in the second round.
Malaysia Masters 2019
Parupalli Kashyap and Subhankar Dey played in the qualifications round. Kashyap qualified but Subhankar lost in the qualifiers. In the main draw Kashyap lost to Ginting in the second round. While Kidambi lost to Son Wan Ho in the quarterfinal.
Indonesia Masters 2019
Subhanker Dey qualified to the main draw but lost in the first round along with Parupalli Kashyap and Sai Praneeth. Kidambi Srikanth again lost in the quarterfinal.
Spain Masters 2019
Subhankar Dey had a first round exit while Ajay Jayaram, Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma suffered second round losses.
All England Championship 2019
H.S Prannoy and Sameer Verma lost in the first round, Sai Praneeth in the second round. Kidambi reached quarterfinals but lost to Kento Momota.
India Open 2019
12 Indians were in MS. Six of them lost their first round matches. This time we had four Indians in the quarterfinals while 2 in the semis (Kashyap and Kidambi). Srikanth ended up as the runner up.
Malaysia Open 2019
Parupalli Kashyap and Sameer Verma lost their first round matches. Srikanth again lost in the quarterfinal.
Singapore Open 2019
Sai Praneeth suffered a first round exit, Kashyap and Prannoy lost in the second round. Kidambi Srikanth’s quarterfinal woes continued.
Indonesia Open 2019
Sai Praneeth and Prannoy – First round exit, Srikanth in the second round.
Japan Open 2019
Sai Praneeth reached the semifinal while Kidambi lost to Prannoy in the first round. Prannoy then lost in the second round.
Thailand Open 2019
Sourabh Verma and Sameer Verma suffered a first round exit. Kashyap, Prannoy, Srikanth could not get past the second round. Sai Praneeth lost in the quarterfinal.
China Open 2019
Kashyap lost in the second round while Sai Praneeth made it to the quarterfinal. Prannoy and Srikanth were both injured and did not compete at this event.
Korea Open 2019
Here Parupalli reached the semifinal while Sai Praneeth suffered a first round exit.
Denmark Open 2019
Sourabh Verma, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth lost their first round matches. While Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth lost in the second round.
French Open 2019
Sameer Verma, Parupalli Kashyap and Srikanth crashed out in first round. Subhanker Dey lost his second round match.
China Open 2019
Prannoy, Sameer, lost in the first round while Sai Praneeth and Kashyap lost in the second round.
Hong Kong Open 2019
Sameer and Sai Praneeth suffered a first round defeat while Kashyap, Prannoy and Sourabh lost in the second round. In this tournament, luck favored Kidambi Srikanth and he reached the semifinal where he lost to the local boy Lee Cheuk Yiu.
Korea Masters and Syed Modi Internationals 2019
Sourabh lost his first round match while Sameer and Srikanth bowed out in the second round at the Korea Masters. At the Syed Modi Internationals out of thirteen Indian only two could make it to the last eight. Srikanth lost in the quarters while Sourabh finished as the runner up.
At the year ending World Tour final, there was no Indian MS participation. Which was shocking for a country whose eight shuttlers featured in the top 50.
Kidambi Srikanth had an injury concern in 2019, before his injury he was in the quarterfinals at almost every tournament. While other the shuttlers performance is very inconsistent, lacking killer instinct and match winning ability.
This year the Olympics are coming and we hope our players are match fit after more than a months break. There is no doubt that the BWF schedule is hectic but that is for everyone. Our players need to improve their fitness and skill set before the cut off date for Tokyo 2020.
